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Cultural Express—Shaanxi Ten Wonders

Maybe because I was born and bred in a city,I would definitely frown upon some behaviours which are obviously improper in manners.One day,walking along the dirt track in some part of the outskirts in Xi’an,I saw several workers squatting on a stone while munching on their lunch held in hands.I cast a glimpse at the chairs and tables beside them and wondered why they would tire them so much by bending the legs to eat when they can easily perch their bottoms on the chairs and the bowls on the tables.

“The ballad is the following: Shaanxi people’s temper is so strange that they prefer squatting to sitting. When asked the reason, they answer that it is comfortable to squat on the bench.

Squatting on the bench, the people in Shaanxi like having meal, smoking, chatting .Although this is a plain thing in others’ view, it is a kind of enjoyment in their own eyes.

In Shaanxi, the old people in the country wearing cloth shoes without socks like squatting on the bench teaing and smoking with a tobacco pipe (a long-stemmed Chinese pipe)in mouth and a radio in hand in their leisure time. In that atmosphere, they feel very comfortable, who are much happier than the serious and sanctimonious people. Therefore, the people in Shaanxi with an unbending nature prefer to squat as the common people rather than sit on the bench stiffly to enjoy the elegant life.

Maybe the contact with the earth naturally makes the people in Shaanxi prefer hobnobbing with the land.”

I remember once in sermon our bishop(originally from Shaanxi)shared a story about his “squatting-and-eating” several years after getting married,which his wife reprimanded very much on then.Even though,this is an interesting culture,I would never want to risk my decency doing that.O_o